A must in Havana. Best tour ever!

[Marinfou1977]

Did you have the tour with Omar in the white and pink Buick ?

 

We had the 3 hours tour in the white and pink chevy but our driver was George. Then we had the 3 hours Old Havana walking tour with Hugo.

 

We also had a tour to Vinales the day before in a white and green hardtop chevy 55 belair with Yoandri.

 

They were all great guides and very nice and friendly.

 

The 6 hours combo tour is really a great value for money compared to the tours offered by Royal Caribbean and we could visit almost all the top spots of the modern city as well as the ones in Old Havana in just 6 hours with local people in private cars rather than in a bus with many other people.

 

I am recommending havanacar to all my friends.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Marinfou1977
Error

[kathy49]

nice to see that some cruisers are finally comforttable setting up local guides and avoid those mass market tours with cruise line. Way to go!

[Marinfou1977]

nice to see that some cruisers are finally comforttable setting up local guides and avoid those mass market tours with cruise line. Way to go!

 

👍👍👍

[paumarier]

We hired Raul of Blexie Tours and he was excellent. Spoke English well, brought us to many out of the way places and thoroughly explained the historical/cultural aspects of Cuba. We learned a lot. And we drove all day in a 1957 Buick Belvidere with air conditioning. Which was great since it was 95 degrees and horribly humid.

[Morato77]

We hired Havanacar to provide private tours to Vinales and Cienfuegos primarily due to the great reviews.  We are so happy we did.

Omar was our tour guide and he was very knowledgeable, personable and spoke a very good english English.  We were picked up on time and were able to customize the tour.  We saw everything and more.  Stefano was great to deal with.  He responded quickly and it was so easy to schedule.  I would highly recommend them!

[B.staar]

On 12/31/2018 at 11:24 PM, Morato77 said:

We hired Havanacar to provide private tours to Vinales and Cienfuegos primarily due to the great reviews.  We are so happy we did.

Omar was our tour guide and he was very knowledgeable, personable and spoke a very good english English.  We were picked up on time and were able to customize the tour.  We saw everything and more.  Stefano was great to deal with.  He responded quickly and it was so easy to schedule.  I would highly recommend them!

 

🤩🤩🤩

[crazysurfer]

On 6/10/2018 at 1:15 AM, IsaSweden69 said:

 

Try www.havanacar.net and ask for Omar and Hugo. They are the best 😍

I totally agree!!!

[Castaway84]

My family of four booked the 6 hours private combo tour with Havanacar adding an extra hour for a cigar factory tour.
Our car was a white and green buick in mint condition.
Our driver Omar was very professional and ensured we were comfortable throughout the tour.
Our walking tour guide, Osvy, was outstanding. He engaged in conversation, about both life in Cuba and other related and unrelated topics, with comfort and ease. He conducted a tour that was both structured and flexible. He ensured we saw all of the key aspects of Old Havana, while also facilitating side trips to satisfy special requests. For example, I wanted to get to a different bank branch to exchange currency rather to waste a lot of time at the exchange ofguce close to the termimal.
He not only located a bank that had a minimal line, but he also assisted by chatting with the customer service lady who was managing the line (which wasn’t actually a line) to ensure I knew where I was in the cue. Osvy clearly has an excellent understanding of Cuban history, in addition to present-day politics. It was a pleasure talking with him, and learning from him. 
The entire tour of 7 hours for a family of 2 adults and 2 children cost $220 CUC ( Cigar factory tickets and lunch not included).
In my opinion, this tour is great value and I highly recommend it.

[kcbookworm]

7 hours ago, Castaway84 said:

My family of four booked the 6 hours private combo tour with Havanacar adding an extra hour for a cigar factory tour.
Our car was a white and green buick in mint condition.
Our driver Omar was very professional and ensured we were comfortable throughout the tour.
Our walking tour guide, Osvy, was outstanding. He engaged in conversation, about both life in Cuba and other related and unrelated topics, with comfort and ease. He conducted a tour that was both structured and flexible. He ensured we saw all of the key aspects of Old Havana, while also facilitating side trips to satisfy special requests. For example, I wanted to get to a different bank branch to exchange currency rather to waste a lot of time at the exchange ofguce close to the termimal.
He not only located a bank that had a minimal line, but he also assisted by chatting with the customer service lady who was managing the line (which wasn’t actually a line) to ensure I knew where I was in the cue. Osvy clearly has an excellent understanding of Cuban history, in addition to present-day politics. It was a pleasure talking with him, and learning from him. 
The entire tour of 7 hours for a family of 2 adults and 2 children cost $220 CUC ( Cigar factory tickets and lunch not included).
In my opinion, this tour is great value and I highly recommend it.

I am so excited to read this as we just booked this same tour (also with the cigar factory tour) for April 11th!  Your post definitely eased our minds about our choice!  Where did you choose to eat lunch?  Did the guide and driver join you?

[Castaway84]

On 2/16/2019 at 7:21 AM, kcbookworm said:

I am so excited to read this as we just booked this same tour (also with the cigar factory tour) for April 11th!  Your post definitely eased our minds about our choice!  Where did you choose to eat lunch?  Did the guide and driver join you?

Hi.

We had our lunch at the Paladar Dona Eutimia which was recommended us by Stefano, the manager who took our reservation.

The place was cozy and food was great. It is located on a side street in front of the Cathedral.

We invited the driver to join us but he could not accept as he had to pick up other clients for another tour.

Then we met the walking tour guide 2 hours later.

 

 

 

[future1sttimecruiser]

Thank you for your review! I just booked with them for an upcoming Carnival cruise in early June. I wanted to go with I Love Cuba Photo Tours at first because of the high ranking on Tripadvisor + the professional photographer aspect. Unfortunately, they were booked, as was Cubaoutings. I was starting to panic, then I remembered your post and took a chance. I do agree that Stefano has been very responsive and I am looking forward to a really great tour!

[donna r]

We thoroughly enjoyed both of our Havana tours and guides, Hugo and Jose did a wonderful job. Both guides were very professional, friendly and knowledgeable.

Hugo was fun to be with, he took pride in his job and wanted to make sure we saw all the highlights of Old Town Havana. His English was excellent.

Jose's car tour was the highlight of our time in Havana! The car was spotless and ran like a charm, my husband was most impressed.

Jose was a great guide, as well as a safe driver.

We highly recommend Havana Tours & Classic Cars Best Tours and our fabulous guides.
Thank you for making our trip to Havana most memorable!

[Aldebaran78]

Hello.

Does anybody know if they have a messenger/ skype contact or a local phone number?

[scpirate]

On 5/26/2018 at 6:54 PM, BIG_Steve said:

 

Roughly how much is 180 CUC in dollars?

About 203 off the top of my head add 13%to 180.

Edited March 16, 2019 by scpirate
Made mistake

[Aldebaran78]

We decided to book a tour with a local company the day before we were docking into Havana and I sent few inquiries by email to the different tour operators we found on the internet being worried that it was too late to arrange something.
Stefano from Havanacar replied me within minutes.
Communication with him was really easy.
He answered all my questions and set up a great tour for us in less than 2 hours.
Our tour guide Hugo was great. One of the reason we really enjoyed our time in Cuba was the great tour Hugo provided. We did the walking tour and then drove and saw other sites in a fun convertible car driven by Jorge. We learned so much about Cuba and saw so much. Hugo is very funny, knowledgeable and has a great personality.
I talked to others that took the tours from the cruise ship and I didn't hear any great reviews.
My advice....arrange a tour with Havanacar and ask for Hugo as a tour guide. You honestly can't go wrong. You will be glad that you did.

[Europe Cruiser 05]

On 2/15/2019 at 5:45 PM, Castaway84 said:

My family of four booked the 6 hours private combo tour with Havanacar adding an extra hour for a cigar factory tour.
Our car was a white and green buick in mint condition.
Our driver Omar was very professional and ensured we were comfortable throughout the tour.
Our walking tour guide, Osvy, was outstanding. He engaged in conversation, about both life in Cuba and other related and unrelated topics, with comfort and ease. He conducted a tour that was both structured and flexible. He ensured we saw all of the key aspects of Old Havana, while also facilitating side trips to satisfy special requests. For example, I wanted to get to a different bank branch to exchange currency rather to waste a lot of time at the exchange ofguce close to the termimal.
He not only located a bank that had a minimal line, but he also assisted by chatting with the customer service lady who was managing the line (which wasn’t actually a line) to ensure I knew where I was in the cue. Osvy clearly has an excellent understanding of Cuban history, in addition to present-day politics. It was a pleasure talking with him, and learning from him. 
The entire tour of 7 hours for a family of 2 adults and 2 children cost $220 CUC ( Cigar factory tickets and lunch not included).
In my opinion, this tour is great value and I highly recommend it.

Castaway84, how was the cigar factory tour? We are not smokers, but I have always really enjoyed factory tours. I am considering adding this onto my tour but want to make sure it's worth an hour of our precious time in Havana. Thank you in advance. 

[Castaway84]

On 3/26/2019 at 5:00 AM, Europe Cruiser 05 said:

Castaway84, how was the cigar factory tour? We are not smokers, but I have always really enjoyed factory tours. I am considering adding this onto my tour but want to make sure it's worth an hour of our precious time in Havana. Thank you in advance. 

Even if you’re not a cigar person, this tour is worth it! It was very interesting and  we learned so much.

The only problem is that, according to what we were informed, the factories are not open to the public every day. Actually they can  be all closed on a particular day.

We were lucky and we could visit the H.Upmann factory which was open for tours on that day.

So you should find out on the same day you get to Havana which one is open and ask your guide to take you to buy the tickets.

 

 

[Europe Cruiser 05]

Thank you Castaway84!! I will definitely try to visit one. 

[Castaway84]

9 hours ago, Europe Cruiser 05 said:

Thank you Castaway84!! I will definitely try to visit one. 

You are welcome 😉 Enjoy it!

[pequita]

We use havanacar dot com to do a 6 hour tour of Havana.  We were very pleased with the tour and the companies service.  Everything was easy from booking on-line to the deposit and the quick response the company delivered.  Five gold stars all the way.

 

Our tour was the six hour car and walking tour on April 4,  2019.  Our driver was very prompt and met us exactly where they said he would be.  Answered all of our questions and gave us plenty of time to see the sights and did not rush us.

 

The walking tour was done by Hugo.  Very educated and informative.  Told us a wealth of knowledge and invited us to ask him anything.  He even asked if we wanted to see anything in particular.  His English was perfect along with his personality.

 

I would use this company again.  The guides were very proud of their country and wanted you to see it all.

[molole]

On December 31, 2018 at 5:24 PM, Morato77 said:

We hired Havanacar to provide private tours to Vinales and Cienfuegos primarily due to the great reviews.  We are so happy we did.

Omar was our tour guide and he was very knowledgeable, personable and spoke a very good english English.  We were picked up on time and were able to customize the tour.  We saw everything and more.  Stefano was great to deal with.  He responded quickly and it was so easy to schedule.  I would highly recommend them!

 

Could you let me know how long was the tour and how much did it cost?  Did you take excursions or tours once you got to Viñales?

[Morato77]

On 4/11/2019 at 8:22 PM, molole said:

 

Could you let me know how long was the tour and how much did it cost?  Did you take excursions or tours once you got to Viñales?

We paid 180 cuc for a full day private tour in a classic sedan.

The length of the tour is up to you as you can leave as early as 7.00 am. We left Havana at 8.30 am and arrived in Vinales around 11.15 am.

We stopped at the Jasmines Hotel and then we went to the Indio Cave.

After our lunch we were taken to a Tobacco farm and before heading back to Havana we stopped at the Prehistoric Wall.

We left Vinales at 5.00 pm and  were back in Havana at 8.00 pm.

So our tour was almost 12 hours long.

It was a great experience and highly recommended  as going to Cuba without exploring the country side won't give you a full experience of the Island.

 

[LadyLauren75]

On 5/26/2018 at 7:47 PM, thesmileguy said:

Does this type of trip/ excursion qualify for people to people. I would think so but just checking.

 

Thank you

 

Support to cuban people is the more appropriate visa category for tours offered by local private agencies.

[pbenjamin]

2 hours ago, LadyLauren75 said:

 

Support to cuban people is the more appropriate visa category for tours offered by local private agencies.

 

How many times does it have to be stated here?  "Support for the Cuban People" has absolutely nothing to do with a visa.  Visas are issued by the Cuban government.  The choice that you are referring to relates to the OFAC affidavit, which is a US government thing.

[Wideross]

On 7/31/2018 at 11:43 AM, IsaSweden69 said:

 

 

We also paid a deposit and then the balance at the beginning of our tour.

Everything was ok.

How could you send a deposit to Cuba?